


Permanent

by alison



Category: One Direction (Band), Radio 1 RPF
Genre: M/M, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-01
Updated: 2013-03-01
Packaged: 2017-12-05 11:43:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/722899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alison/pseuds/alison
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis starts getting tattoos and some of them represent his relationship with Nick, but they don’t actually talk about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Permanent

**Author's Note:**

> Timing/chronology of tattoos may be a bit off, but this is fiction so don’t get all nitpicky.

They had been dating for a year or so when Louis had gotten the first one. And then they just kept coming. It seemed like a new one popped up every day.

At first they were small, simple things that made Nick smile as he kissed over the stained skin. The skateboarder. The screws on his ankles. Then came the one that overwhelmed him in every way possible. The one that knocked him on his arse.

_Oops!_

When Nick’s eyes fell to Louis’ arm and saw the new ink there, he knew immediately what it meant. He swallowed hard, feeling his cheeks flush as his heart began to race.

“Don’t freak out, Nick,” Louis warned, grabbing his arms firmly.

Instead of looking into Louis’ eyes, Nick blankly shook his head slowly and wrapped him up in a hug, remaining silent, not wanting to say anything he’d regret later. It was hard for Nick to bite his tongue, but he’d learned to do it in situations like these. So, instead of asking questions or demanding explanations, he chose avoidance.

They never spoke about the tattoo. Not once. It was just there, always.

-

_They’d been sleeping together for a few weeks and it was all very easy. Louis never asked Nick for anything Nick wasn’t prepared to give and vice versa. They just had amazing sex and left it at that. But, things slowly changed. Louis started sleeping over after. Nick started kissing him before they fell asleep. Then Nick started kissing him in the morning. They started making breakfast together, laughing at the fact that they were both hopeless cooks and couldn’t manage to make one proper pancake between the two of them._

_And that part was easy too, really. Easier than Nick expected. He wasn’t great at commitment or relationships, but this was different somehow. Nick never felt pressured to say the things he didn’t want to say. He never felt pressure to define anything._

_One night, they were in bed after having sex and Nick wrapped his arms around Louis. They weren’t big on post-coital cuddling since Louis tended to thrash around a lot in his sleep, but Nick felt an urge that night and didn’t deny himself. He pulled Louis into him, placing a quick kiss to Louis’ forehead before running his fingers slowly through his hair. He felt peaceful and happy- like he’d never truly been happy before and was just realizing it for the first time._

_“Feeling clingy tonight?” Louis asked, a laugh in his voice._

_“Mhmm. You’re warm.” Nick responded simply._

_Louis pulled himself up so he was face to face with Nick. It was dark, with just the streetlights shining in through the draped windows. Nick could barely see Louis’ features, just saw his shining eyes and the shadow of his lips as they moved._

_“I have something to say, but I don’t want you to talk. Just listen. And then we can pretend it never happened.”_

_Nick nodded, his eyebrows knit together apprehensively, nervous about what was coming._

_“I think you fell for me at some point and I’m sure you didn’t mean to – I’m sure you never meant to let me in – but I think you did. Actually, I know you did. So, I just want you to know that I know, just in case you feel like you have to pretend it never happened. And I want you to know that I fell for you, too, even though I never meant to either.”_

_Louis stopped and smiled, leaning in to place a sweet kiss to Nick’s lips before flopping back down to his spot under Nick’s arm._

_Nick, who had been listening to this with surprising calm, took a moment to think. Instead of freaking out, he smiled. Louis had basically taken care of the annoying first “I love you” moment in about 10 seconds flat and had let Nick off the hook altogether. So, he smiled at how well Louis knew him- at how well Louis knew how to handle him- and squeezed him briefly, whispering into the darkness._

_“Oops.”_

_And Nick knew that Louis understood that it was Nick’s way of admitting that, yes, he had fallen for Louis, without ever intending for it to happen. That “oops” was Nick’s “I love you.”_

-

Until that point, Louis had always explained his tattoos to Nick except for “oops”. Sometimes Nick would even go with him and watch as he covered his skin with ink. But, as Louis continued to get more, they fell into a habit. Louis talked about all of his tattoos except for the ones that pertained to Nick.

When Louis showed up with empty quotation marks on his wrist, Nick waited for an explanation, but never got one. Over time, after hearing Louis try to explain the tattoo to others, Nick figured out that it represented the things that they never said to each other, never needing to. It was the things that remained unspoken between the two of them that they both just knew. Like their whole relationship lived between those two quotation marks.

Then came the compass, which Nick had entirely expected Louis to explain to him. He was on tour a lot, away from his family, and it made sense. But as Nick’s eyes drifted down to the fresh ink, raising his eyebrows in a question, Louis simply smiled, shook his head a little, and kissed him on the cheek, heading into Nick’s kitchen. Nick didn’t understand until he got a closer look that evening.

_Home._

Nick once again chose avoidance, not even letting himself think about what that implied.

A few months later, Louis hadn’t gotten any new tattoos in a while and Nick was actually starting to relax into the ones he had. Every time he saw the “oops” he smiled to himself. He had also taken to kissing Louis’ wrist while he was inside him, thrusting into him slowly. It was his way of saying the things he never actually said, placing a kiss squarely between those two quotation marks.

Then one Saturday they had a morning free, which was almost unheard of. They had lazy morning sex, with Louis in Nick’s lap, his legs wrapped around Nick’s waist. He moved up and down slowly, sometimes just resting with Nick’s cock buried deep inside him, sighing at the feeling. There was no rush, no roughness, and Nick was completely content, just being inside Louis and letting his lips drag lazily across Louis’ warm skin.

Once they had finished, they watched cooking shows and drank tea in bed, letting themselves be completely relaxed. The sun was shining in through the window, lighting up Louis’ face and Nick smiled disbelievingly at the boy, wondering how this had become his life and how he had ever lived any other way.

“This is the best day,” Nick said, smiling down at Louis.

“It really is. I wish every day could be like this,” Louis said casually before taking a sip of his tea.

Nick nodded in agreement, sipping at his own tea.

“Wish we could stay like this forever.”

Louis caught his eye and Nick couldn’t help but notice the sparkle in Louis’. It wasn’t a big deal, really. Just one of those statements everyone makes, but they both knew Nick Grimshaw was not everyone. Instead of trying to take back his statement, he leaned in to kiss Louis. As he pulled back, he smiled before taking another sip of tea.

The next day when Louis showed up with a cup of tea inked into his arm, Nick didn’t bother asking. He knew what it meant and, somehow, he wasn’t anxious about it. Instead of the normal symptoms of panic, he merely smirked at Louis upon seeing the new tattoo, pulling him into his arms.

“You know those things are permanent, right?” He said, still smirking down at the younger boy.

Louis returned the smirk and stood on his tiptoes to give Nick a quick kiss, wrapping his arms around Nick’s neck. He rested his head on Nick’s shoulder, relaxing into him.

“That’s kind of the point.”

That was the most they ever spoke about these tattoos telling the story of their relationship across Louis’ skin. It wasn’t a big deal that they didn’t use the word “love” because it was right there, all the time. It was okay that they never promised each other anything because the promise was always there, buried in Louis’ skin.

Permanently.


End file.
